Fr. Andrew Louth

• WORKS:
  • The Origins of the Christian Mystical Tradition, (1981). Oxford: Clarendon, 1981.
  • Denys the Areopagite, (1989). London: Continuum, 1989. Argues that St. Dionysius viewed hierarchy not as a ladder to be climbed but as a theophany composing the cosmic liturgy. "[O]n the one hand, [Dionysius'] understanding of hierarchy makes possible a rich symbolic system in terms of which we can understand God and cosmos and our place within it, and, on the other, he finds room within this strictly hierarchical society for an escape from it, beyond it, by transcending symbols and realizing directly one's relationship with God as his creature, the creature of his love." Fr. Andrew thus refutes those critics (in particular Fr. John Meyendorff) who see the Areopagetic writings as "mystagogical", individualistic, and damaging to Orthodoxy; rather, he in effect argues, they present a liturgical vision of theology not dissimilar from that which Meyendorff and Schmemann themselves advocated.